Modern day computer and computer software users use a variety of software applications to perform various tasks, for example, to write, calculate, draw, organize, prepare presentations, send and receive electronic mail, make music, and the like. A user may utilize a spreadsheet application to process and manipulate data, and using spreadsheet functions, to perform many simple to very complex calculations and organizational functions with their data.
A spreadsheet application is oftentimes used for data analysis; however many of today's tools are manual, meaning that users have to stipulate what type of data they are feeding in and what type of analysis they wish to perform. In addition, users may potentially need to edit their data to conform to the needs of the tool (e.g. rearrange their data into a form recognizable by the tool, express data in a specific format, etc.).
Some users may experience challenges when trying to identify insights from their data. For example, a dataset may include noisy and/or incomplete data. Noisy data, such as outliers and missing data may make it difficult for a common user to determine meaningful analysis data (e.g., an average value, trend line, etc.).
A common user may be required to have a certain knowledge base of the application's capabilities and may require a series of complicated steps to perform certain operations. Many common users may have a limited knowledge of principles of statistical graphics or data analysis, which may make it difficult for him/her to identify important insights. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.